The King-who-stood
by maartenvervloet
Summary: The Green Men have the last laugh I decided to end it like it currently stands, there is a very small chance I might write something more in the future, but I doubt it [complete]


_The Targaryen downfall began after the Isle of Faces – The North Remembers, by Petyr Wardstark, Chief Scribe of the Great Library at Winterfell, 53 years into the Long War_

_While most historians agree a rare agreement between the Faith and the Citadel had urged her to destroy the Green Men, it is unknown whether they hoped she would catch the curse or she would succeed where they failed. The only certainty was that it was Rhaenys Targaryen on her dragon Meraxes who lit the fire that devastated the Isle of Faces – A history of Westeros, by Nevio Otherys of Braavos_

For two thousand years, the Order of the Green Men had continued its protection of the Isle of Faces. First Men and the Children of the Forest had always managed to maintain the weirwood trees on the holy island. Entire armies had vanished inside the thick forests, never to be seen again, attempts to burn down the forest failed time and time again, the magic in the trees not allowing them to burn. Curses over all those daring to lift an axe against the trees. All these things combined made sure no Andal willingly set foot on the Isle of Faces.

Rhaenys Targaryen was usually considered the most timid of her siblings, she was still quick to anger. While the Green Man Thormund had been courteous enough, he had not even deigned to acknowledge her as a queen. While part of Rhaenys understood that his Order had not acknowledged any ruler at all since its founding, another part was a proud Valyrian who refused to accept any part of their new kingdom (and they did consider the whole of Westeros thus) not bowing to her.

At the end, Rhaenys had mounted Meraxes and had her mighty dragon unleash its fire upon the forest. At the end, even magic had its limit, slowly but steady, the entire island was turned into nothing but ash. The Green Men, human and Children of the Forest alike, had the last laugh though, as they used their own deaths to fuel a curse upon the Targaryen queen and her mount. Rhaenys would never carry any child to term, none of Meraxes' eggs would ever get hatched. Bad luck would follow Rhaenys the rest of her life.

Prince Benjen Stark was led into the office of the Sealord of Braavos. After the desecration of the Isle of Faces, the North had been united in its agreement that it would never bow to the Targaryens. The problem was that the North had no defense against the dragons. "My nation is threatened by Valyrians", prince Benjen, the heir to the Throne of Winter, explained, "my father, king Torrhen, has sent me to barter for dragon killing ballistae. In exchange, we are willing to offer 300 Valyrian steel swords and half the ore mined within the North for the next 20 years. We are also willing to offer pelts and weirwood."

The Starks had known of the Valyrians for a long time, they had even had an ally of sorts in the House of Peverell for most of that time (a Dragonlord House that had perished with the Doom). When Theon 'the Hungry Wolf' Stark had sailed to Andalos, he had arrived there at the same time as 30 Peverell dragonriders. Andals of Andalos had apparently tried to poison the Peverell dragons. The two forces, First Men and Peverells, had utterly ravished Andalos. Even 2000 years later, nothing would grow there.

The Peverells had never directly fought for the Starks, but they had indirectly aided them. They had helped rebuild Moat Cailin. They had also sold thousands of Valyrian steel swords to the Northerners.

Of course that was a long time past, Braavos had agreed to allow its engineers to come to the North to place their deadly weapons on the Northern fortifications. While most engineers would return to Braavos afterwards, not all would do so. Lord Rickard Wardstark of Moat Cailin, the Lord-Warden of the Marches would begin his famous friendship with the Braavosi engineer and philosopher Nevio Otherys. During the two years he had spend working to make Moat Cailin even more formidable than it already had been, Nevio Otherys had fallen in love with lord Wardstark's younger sister Arya. Rickard Wardstark had been more than happy to allow the two to marry.

Some say it had been luck, others said the Targaryens feared that the Northerners would be able to lay even worse curses on them, the fact was that the Targaryens had attacked Dorne before the North. The Targaryens had clearly forgotten why it had taken over 300 dragons to crush the Rhoynar (and even then the Rhoynar had managed to kill 52 of them), with only three dragons, their invasion was doomed to failure. A Dornish ballista finished what the Green Men curse had started, both Rhaenys and Meraxes died without any children. It took thousands of lives (mostly on the Targaryen side), but at the end, Aegon and his remaining sister-wife had no choice but to let Dorne be.

When the Targaryens finally turned northwards, it was already too late. Not a keep was left in the North that had not stationed several Braavosi ballistae, always in groups of three (two to fire connected ballista bolts carrying a large reinforced net, a third one to hit the dragon once it's down).

During the first assault on Moat Cailin, Balerion was killed (only with great luck had the huge dragon been able to get his rider on the ground alive), combined with how the Dornishmen had killed Meraxes and Rhaenys, this brought the total amount of Targaryen dragons down to three (and two of those were too small to ride). The man who fired the shot, one Samwell Snow, instantly became known throughout the North. In no time, people began to refer to him as the Dragonbane, a name the young bastard officially took on eventually.

The ship from White Harbor arrived at Sunspear, carrying Samwell Dragonbane and prince Benjen Stark. The two would be meeting with the Ruling Princess of Dorne, Meria Martell, and her son and heir Nymor Martell. "The information we brought your Grace, is information that we have had for a long time", Benjen Stark explained, "up until now, we had been under the impression the Rhoynish watermages were gone, now we know it isn't the case. The information we bring could be vital in ensuring they stay."

Benjen handed over several scrolls, "you can have these looked after, but do not allow anyone from the Faith of the Seven or the Citadel access to them. These are certified copies, made in the Great Library of Winterfell, from texts handed to us by the Peverell Dragonlords nearly 2000 years ago."

"Please explain", Nymor Martell requested.

"The Peverells had had a research outpost far from Valyria itself", Benjen did as asked, "they used it to investigate the magic used by other people. Thereby increasing their own magical knowledge. One of the people they investigated, the Sarmani, I believe they had some kind of magic used to infuse metals and rocks with magic, for some reason began to slowly lose all magic. Something that had only begun after they began trading with the Andals, specifically the Faith of the Seven and those who would later become the Citadel."

"That's why you don't allow Maesters in the North?" Meria asked.

"It is", Benjen confirmed, "when later on, the same begun happening with the Peverells and their dragons stationed in their outpost near Andalos, and dragons can't live without magic, they found out their outpost's water supply had been poisoned. The Peverells banded together and flew their dragons to Andalos, arriving at the same time as my ancestor, king Theon Stark. From interrogation, we found out the Maesters were opposed to the very existence of magic, while the Faith of the Seven believe only their gods should have such powers. From how they convinced this Rhaenys, good work taking out her and her dragon, to unleash her dragon on the Isle of Faces, it is clear that the Andals haven't stopped their attempts to purge all magic."

The aftermath of their discussion would eventually lead to Dorne banning the Maester Order from Dornish lands. While the Faith wasn't banned, the only Septons and Septa's allowed in Dorne were those from Dorne itself. Dorne no longer accepted the authority of the High Septon at Oldstone. The men and women of the cloth remaining were also forced to choose between having them be bound in loyalty to Sunspear by Rhoynar mages or exile. While many Dornishmen still remained faithful to the Seven, several had gone back to the gods of their ancestors (Old Gods and Mother Rhoyne). Dorne would probably be the only place in the world where the Old Gods, the New Gods and the Rhoynar pantheon were worshipped side-by-side.

Another result of the trip to Dorne, was the pregnancy of Nymar's three bastard daughters and four other Dornish women, courtesy of the now hugely popular Samwell Dragonbane (not all people could say they had slain a dragon).


End file.
